Chirp. Chirp.

'Huh? Something is off.'

I opened my eyes, finding the same luxurious room greeting me yet again.

Whoosh.

'...' I traced the movements of the curtains, swept by the breeze. 'Yeah...I can hear...'

'Wait, I can hear again!' I screamed loudly in my mind. The sound of the wind, birds singing, the busy steps of the maids. I could hear everything.

I called the blond maid by blowing a gentle wind to her face like usual. She put down the pillow back on the sofa and walked to my side.

"What is it, young master?" A strict yet light tone brushed my ears.

'So that's how she sounds like...Can I speak?' I tried, but again, nothing happened.

Failed, but not discouraged, I opted for another option.

My hands moved following my command. One was pointing at my ear and the other one gave a thumb-up.

The maid tilted her head to the side even after I kept repeating the gesture over and over again. 'Ugh. This won't work.'

Then I turned to the ex-assassin maid on the side, who was studying our interactions with a puzzling look. My hand was still pointing at me while I sent out an intent at her. 'I can hear.'

"Huh?" Her eyebrows shoot upward in response. She quickly fixed her expression in a split second after noticing her blunder. Honestly, it's been quite some time since she became my maid, but the woman has been letting her guard down too much these days.

"I think the young master is telling us that he can hear now." She turned toward the blond maid and explained on my behalf.

I looked back to the person who was always by my side and nodded. While she was opening and closing her mouth like a goldfish in a pond, I repeated the earlier gestures once again to nail the facts down.

And so, her back was the last thing I saw before sprinted out of the room as if she was chased by a ghost or something.

'Welp, it's been a while since I saw that...' It was quite funny, to be honest.

'Now then...' I turned my gaze to the last person in the room. The blue-haired assassin maid. She noticed the changes in my eyes and knelt low on the ground. Waiting for my word.

'Come to my room tonight.'

We have a lot to talk about, and I have so much to catch up on.

"By your will, my Lord." A cold yet firm reply resounded across the room, unlike how her persona usually spoke where there were others present.

'...Okay. Now, how about-' I was about to start training before the door opened loudly as if rammed by a bull.

My Father, Mother, Sister, and even the butler entered the room in frantic manners. Lastly, the kind maid who went to fetch them closed the door gently behind the four, the sweat and the rough panting had completely betrayed the elegance of her gait.

"Son, can you hear me!?" Asked Father.

'Yes, I can.' And I nod in reply.

"Glory to the Light! Our son can hear now, dear! He is recovering!!" Mother cried and reached out to hug my Father. The gentleman, on the other hand, fishes out his handkerchief and very smoothly brushes her falling tears.

'Um, hello? Get a room, you two...'

"Alex! Alex!! Can you hear me? It's me, Alyson. Your sister!" My sister, oblivious to the two lovebirds, jumped energetically into my bed. She missed it, but I could spot the glint in Mother's eyes at seeing such un-ladylike behavior.

'Yes, I can, sister.' For now, I nod back to humor her.

They kept talking, and I kept on nodding now and then. My Sister and Mother were the ones who did the talking, though. My father only chimed in sometimes and added one or two details following the two.

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Due to the neverending ruckus, I have a late breakfast. George, my father, only went after the third time the butler reminded him, while my mother, Maya, had to drag the clingy Alyson out before peace could reign back in the spacious bedroom.

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'My full name. Age. My family, this house. The blonde maid and also the butler. Tell me everything.'

In the dark room, where the lustrous shine of the moonlight pierced through the window, the assassin was kneeling with her head down right beside my bed.

She looked up upon my request and told me everything. And here's what I found out.

My name is Alexander Von Dawson, and I turned six years old today. My family was the prestigious house of Dawson, with George Von Dawson as the family head. The Duchess, Maya Von Dawson, was a former Fifth Princess from the Kareya kingdom in the far east of the Lorian continent, which was also known to be the land of Humans.

The maid said my father and mother met ten years ago at the peace talk of Lorian's Alliance and fell for each other at first sight. They quickly arranged the wedding, and their love fully blossomed faster than ever with the changing of the seasons.

It was truly a story out of a third-rate romance novel's cliche plot, but that's what happened. No one could deny it. It is what it is.

My sister, Alyson Von Dawson, was born shortly a year after the wedding, and she will turn ten in a couple of months from today.

The reason why there was a huge gap in age between Alyson and me was because of the plague that devastated the world after Alyson was born. It spawned all over the world, and no land was safe from its reach.

It lasted for three whole years, and it knew not about choosing the victims. Royalties, nobles, slum dwellers, young or old, animals, and monsters. They would find their bodies weak, as though their life were seeped out day by day into the void.

Due to its characteristic of sucking the victims dry, they called it the Bloodless Plague.

Every living thing could be the subject of its terror beneath the ever-moving sky. No one knew for sure what the cause was, and no cure was ever found. It was more like a curse than a plague.

The only reason they kept calling it a plague and not a curse was due to the religious beliefs that held their hope intact. It was easier to view it as a sickness and not a curse from the gods after all. They also believe that their gods didn't abandon them because there were cases of people who were able to survive the nightmarish ordeal.

Albeit not as many as those who died, there were, in fact, people who managed to push through and keep their lives to their own.

Maya was such an example. She was holding to her last breath day after day. Everyone thought she wouldn't last another day. Rumors kept flying about how the duchess would die, and how the duke who lost his half would follow her soon before long.

Yet, day by day, Maya kept on breathing no matter how shallow it was and how weak she became. Until one day, her feeble breath began to grow stronger, and she started to recover.

It was obvious the tale of love from the Duke and Duchess of Dawson was far from over. And jumping a year later after she had fully recovered, a baby boy was born.

He was strange right from birth. Right after crying, the boy started convulsing as if he were possessed by a hellspawn.

I believed that happened when I was grinding...

He was blind, deaf, and unresponsive to any outside stimulations. Just like a living corpse...

The boy was white from head to toe. His father was a brown-haired man, while his mother was a jet-black-haired woman. Yet the boy's hair was as white as the snow.

Far from having the same bluish irises that resembled the sky like his Father before him, the boy's eyes glowed purple, like the distant Milky Way from the land of stars.

Yes, it was me. Your one and only.

People kept whispering that it was the curse's hand that made the boy look nothing different than a living corpse. It was hilarious how when it was their business, it was a plague, but when it no longer concerned them, it became a curse instead.

Anyway, that's basically what the maid told me. It was a meticulous report of my origin that I have been so curious about this whole time.

She then went on to conclude it with the details of the blond maid and George's assistant, the butler.

Hannah was her name. She also hailed from the country of Kareya, along with Maya. Apparently, she was a merchant's daughter who lost her family due to some dirty scheme. She got entangled with Maya when she was trying to steal something to eat and Maya's knight just happened to spot the deed conveniently while they were strolling the city in disguise.

Again, everything regarding this family seemed to revolve around a cliche plot or something.

Let's take a step back. So, Hannah, who was caught stealing, was spared by Maya right before the knight could chop the poor girl's hand off. Hannah, who wanted a better life and also to repay Maya's kindness, begged her to give her a chance.

One thing led to another; Hannah became a maid in the royal palace. Smart and hardworking as she was, Hannah soon became Maya's personal maid. Thus, when she was married to the Dawson, Hannah also came with her. And when I was born, Maya, who trusted Hannah like her own sister, placed me in her care.

And the last one on the list. George's reliable assistant, Byron.

A bald old man with a thin and neat beard who always wore a copper-rimmed monocle in his left eye. Eighty in age, but still going strong. He was the head butler of the Dawson. The word veteran would describe him best. Wise, loyal, but also shrewd nonetheless. He was a person who had witnessed the ups and downs of the Dawson his whole life.

He rose up to serve as the head butler right when the former head was still active. A man who spent more time with George rather than his own father.

'Okay, that's enough...' I was still curious about lots of things, but for now, there was something I needed to find out.

'What about you?'

The intent I sent was short yet grim at the same time.

'Tell me everything about yourself.'